Many owners and drivers of off-road vehicles such as Jeep® brand vehicles choose to enhance their stock vehicles with aftermarket accessories. Such accessories might include, for example, light guards, snorkels, winches, wheels, suspensions, special ruggedized tires, and the like. While some off-road accessories are decorative, most serve the purpose of enhancing the resiliency and survivability of the vehicle, or enhancing the experience of a driver when the vehicle is driven on very demanding and often punishing off-road terrain.
One accessory often added to an off-road vehicle is auxiliary lighting to make the path ahead more visible when off-roading after dark or in the rain and fog. Auxiliary lighting can take many forms such as, for instance, spotlights mounted on the windshield pillars, spotlights mounted on the roof of the vehicle, lights mounted on the front fender and/or its bars, spotlights mounted on a roll bar, and even lights mounted on the hood. While these solutions for providing additional light have proven useful, they nevertheless have certain problems and shortcomings inherent in their respective designs.
For example, the lights and mounting structures of prior art auxiliary lighting tend to be dedicated and permanent once mounted to the vehicle. It is difficult or impossible to exchange one type of lighting fixture for another when desired or otherwise to reconfigure the lighting configuration. Further, the positioning of individual lights is generally fixed in prior art auxiliary lighting. There is little provision in the prior art for mounting accessories other than lights such as, for instance, mirrors or sports cameras. Finally, in many prior art auxiliary lighting systems, the wiring that supplies power to lighting fixtures is visible. This is problematic and undesirable for many off-road vehicle owners who prefer a neat clean appearance.
A need exists for an auxiliary lighting system for off-road vehicles that is modular, reconfigurable as needed by adding or removing individual lighting fixtures or moving them to different locations, that is neat and clean in appearance without visible wiring, and that is adapted for the convenient mounting of accessories other than lights when desired. It is to the provision of an auxiliary lighting and accessory system for off-road vehicles that addresses these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.